Creative Innovation Lab

Creative Innovation Lab CREA-CROSS is a Creative Europe budget-based project grant to design, develop and spread innovative tools, business models and solutions for the audiovisual sector in cooperation with at least one of music, books or museums, prioritising AI, big data, blockchain, virtual worlds, rights management and greener practices. The call is implemented by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency with an indicative topic budget of €7,183,502, a planned opening date of 22 October 2026 and a submission deadline of 22 April 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time. Projects normally run up to 24 months, the grant typically reimburses up to 80% of eligible costs and financial support to third parties is allowed under specified conditions (normal maximum per third party €60,000). Eligible applicants are legal entities established in Creative Europe participating countries, submissions are electronic via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and Part B is limited to 50 pages.

What it funds

Scope and priorities

Design, development and/or rollout of innovative tools, models or solutions that apply to the audiovisual sector (mandatory) together with at least one of: music, books or museums. Priority topics include virtual worlds/metaverse, AI and big data enabled business tools (rights management, monetisation, prediction/data analytics), and greener practices to reduce environmental impact. Projects must show cross-sectoral cooperation and address sustainability, inclusion and fair remuneration for creators.

Grant details

Selection and eligibility highlights

Applications limited to 50 pages for Part B. Projects normally up to 24 months. Evaluation criteria: Relevance (40 points), Quality of content and activities (40), Project management (10), Dissemination (10). Overall threshold 70/100. Admissibility, eligibility, financial and operational capacity checks apply. Submission only via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

What is ineligible

Ineligible activities include multimedia art installations, immersive tours/events for retail, music videos used in retail, promotional/advertising works, reference works and most e‑learning platforms, most formats of live-recordings and certain TV formats, pornographic or racist material, costs for content production/development or cultural event organisation (these costs are not funded under this call).

How to apply / support

Submit electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal using the CREA MEDIA application form and templates. Applicants must register organisations in the Participant Register (PIC) beforehand. For enquiries contact your Creative Europe Desk or EACEA: EACEA-CROSS-INNOVLAB@ec.europa.eu.

Footnotes

1. 1Full call documentation, eligibility details, application templates and the call fiche are available on the Portal topic page Creative Innovation Lab — call page.

Basic facts and timeline

Purpose, objectives and scope

Target sectors, technologies and activity examples

Who should apply / Eligible applicant types

Geographic eligibility and beneficiary scope

Financial details and funding model

Application process, documents and templates

Evaluation, award criteria and thresholds

Eligibility and exclusions — what is not funded

Project characteristics and expected maturity

Operational, financial capacity and compliance checks

Application practicalities and good practice

Scoring, success factors and competitiveness

Application stages and number of steps

Co-funding and financial contributions

Templates and application structure

Ineligible costs and activities (detailed)

Assessment of risk, ethics and AI use

How to get help and support

Success rates and competitiveness

Summary — What this opportunity is about and how to explain it

The Creative Innovation Lab call finances projects that design, develop and scale innovative digital and business solutions at the crossroads of audiovisual and at least one of music, books or museum sectors. It targets tools, services and business models that use new technologies (AI, big data, blockchain, virtual worlds/XR, NFTs) to improve rights management and monetisation, enhance discoverability and audience development, renew markets and audience pathways through virtual worlds, and accelerate the green transition of cultural and creative industries. The call supports pilots, demonstrators and deployments that are cross-sectoral, bring measurable European added value and demonstrate viable business models and dissemination strategies. Successful applications will combine technical innovation with market insight, sustainability strategies, ethical AI/data handling, and clear cross-border cooperation to increase the circulation and audience reach of European cultural content.

Footnotes

1. 1Call topic page and full call documentation, including the Call Document, Application Form templates, Declaration on Standards and Independence, and Model Grant Agreement (CREA MGA) are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: ec.europa.eu

Funding opportunity overview

Creative Innovation Lab is a forthcoming Creative Europe Cross Sectoral action grant supporting the design, development and spread of innovative tools, business models and solutions for the audiovisual sector together with at least one of the following sectors: music, books or museums. The opportunity is particularly relevant to cross-sector innovation involving artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, virtual worlds, data analytics, rights management, audience development and environmental transition.

The call is implemented under the Creative Europe Programme by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. It uses the CREA Project Grants action and a budget-based Creative Europe action grant agreement. The official topic reference is CREA-CROSS.

Applicants should verify the final call documentation and topic conditions before submission because the call is forthcoming and the 2027 budget remains subject to final adoption by the EU budgetary authority. The official call page is available at Creative Innovation Lab 2027.

Key facts

Who can apply

Eligible applicants include public and private legal entities established in an EU Member State, including overseas countries and territories, or in another country participating in Creative Europe. Eligible non-EU countries are those listed as EEA countries or countries associated with the Creative Europe Programme at the relevant time.

Applicants must be established in a participating country and must be owned directly or indirectly, wholly or by majority participation, by nationals of countries participating fully in Creative Europe. For publicly listed entities, the location of the stock exchange may determine eligibility where the nationality of individual owners cannot be established under the call rules.

The call is open to a broad range of organisations, including audiovisual companies, cultural and creative organisations, music organisations, publishers, museums, technology companies, start-ups, public bodies, business incubators and accelerators. The strongest applications are likely to combine sector expertise, technology capability and credible routes to market or adoption.

Natural persons are generally not eligible. Self-employed persons and sole traders may be eligible where they do not have a separate legal personality, subject to the applicable national legal framework. International organisations may participate and are not subject to the eligible country requirement.

EU bodies generally cannot participate, except for the European Commission Joint Research Centre rule specified in the call documentation. Entities without legal personality may participate exceptionally where their representatives can undertake legal obligations and provide equivalent protection for EU financial interests.

Single applicants are permitted. Consortium applications must include at least two applicants that are beneficiaries. Affiliated entities do not count towards the minimum consortium composition requirement.

Potential applicant profiles

Suitable applicants may include audiovisual producers, distributors, broadcasters, streaming and online content platforms, video game and interactive narrative companies, publishers, music organisations, museums, cultural heritage institutions, technology developers, artificial intelligence companies, data and rights management providers, accelerators and incubators.

A technology company acting alone may be eligible, but its proposal must demonstrate genuine applicability in the audiovisual sector and at least one of the eligible complementary sectors. A cultural organisation acting alone must similarly demonstrate sufficient technology, innovation and implementation capacity.

Creative Europe Desk consultation

The European Commission strongly advises applicants to check the relevance and eligibility of their concept with their domestic Creative Europe Desk before submission. The Creative Europe Desk network is listed at Creative Europe Desks.

What the funding supports

Projects must support the design, development and or spread of innovative tools, models or solutions applicable to the audiovisual sector and at least one of music, books or museums. The project should create a solution with potential for wider adoption, replication or long-term impact across cultural and creative sectors.

The proposal must focus on one or more of the following thematic areas:

Virtual worlds as environments for promoting European content, renewing audiences and improving the competitiveness of European content industries.

Innovative business tools enabled or enhanced by artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, virtual worlds, non-fungible tokens or other emerging technologies for production, financing, distribution or promotion.

Rights management and monetisation tools that improve transparency and fair remuneration for creators and artists, including bundled subscription offers providing access to diverse European cultural content from existing European platforms.

Data collection and analysis tools, especially predictive tools for content creation and audience development, including cross-sectoral tools that improve subscriber services and the valorisation of European content on online platforms.

Greener practices that reduce the environmental impact of the audiovisual and other eligible cultural sectors in line with the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus priorities.

Cross-sectoral requirement

Cross-sectoral cooperation is central to the call. Audiovisual activity is compulsory and the project must also cover music, books, museums or more than one of these sectors. The proposal must explain the role of each sector, the practical conditions for cooperation, the specific problem being addressed and the benefits expected for each participating sector.

Applications should not merely assemble organisations from different sectors. They should demonstrate that the solution requires or materially benefits from cross-sector cooperation, shared data, integrated business models, common infrastructure, joint testing or coordinated audience and market strategies.

Expected results and impact

Successful projects should contribute to improved competitiveness of the European audiovisual and cultural sectors through better transparency, data collection, artificial intelligence and big data use, and adaptation to market and technological change.

Expected impact also includes improved adaptation to virtual worlds and digital transformation, better production financing and cross-border circulation of European content, increased visibility and discoverability, greater diversity and availability of content, and increased potential audiences.

Projects should accelerate environmental transition and show how their tools, operating models or adoption strategies support more sustainable and environmentally responsible industry practices.

Applications are expected to address gender balance, inclusion, diversity and representativeness in the project design, management, technology, content, target audiences and implementation approach.

Ineligible activities and costs

The following activities are expressly excluded:

Multimedia art projects and installations.

Immersive tours, events, music videos and immersive experiences used in retail.

Promotional works forming part of advertising or promotional campaigns for a destination, tourism activity, product or brand, and institutional productions promoting a specific organisation or its activities.

Reference works such as encyclopaedias, atlases, catalogues, databases and similar works, as well as how-to works, manuals and interactive e-books.

Projects focused on live recordings, television games, talk shows, cooking shows, magazines, news, media literacy, reality shows, educational or teaching programmes and how-to programmes.

Tourism documentaries, making-of productions, reports, animal reportages, news programmes and docu-soaps.

Projects containing pornographic or racist material or advocating violence.

E-learning platforms.

Costs related to content production or development are not eligible under this call. Costs for organising cultural events are also not eligible. A proposal should therefore focus on innovation tools, models, systems, services, testing, deployment, dissemination and exploitation rather than financing the production of films, programmes, games, books, recordings or events.

Financial support to third parties

Financial support to third parties is allowed in the form of grants or similar support where it is necessary to achieve the project objectives. The proposal must explain why the support is needed, how recipients will be selected and managed, the types of activity that may receive support and the expected results.

Third-party calls must be open, widely publicised and compliant with transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality requirements. They must remain open for at least two months and have a clear European dimension. Their results must be published on the participants' websites.

The maximum amount of financial support per third party is normally €60,000. A higher amount may be permitted only where necessary to achieve the action objectives and where this is duly justified in the application.

Funding amount and co-financing

The indicative call budget is €7,183,502. The call document does not set a fixed minimum or maximum grant per project. The requested grant amount is therefore determined by the applicant's budget, the 80% reimbursement rate, the available call budget and the outcome of evaluation.

The grant reimburses 80% of eligible costs fixed in the Grant Agreement. Applicants must finance the remaining share through own resources, private investment, financial contributions, income generated by the action or other eligible sources. The call places particular emphasis on attracting private investment and demonstrating own investment.

The ability to request a sound and reasonable level of EU public funding below the authorised 80% rate is assessed under the quality of content and activities criterion. A proposal requesting the full possible EU contribution without a credible co-financing and investment strategy may be less competitive.

The grant may not generate a profit. For-profit organisations must declare project revenues, and any surplus of revenues plus EU funding over eligible costs may lead to a reduction of the final grant.

Illustrative financing example

For a project with €1,000,000 in eligible costs, an 80% grant would correspond to a maximum EU contribution of €800,000, subject to the Grant Agreement and evaluation outcome. The remaining €200,000 would need to come from other eligible resources. This example is illustrative and does not represent a guaranteed grant amount.

Eligible cost categories

The budget-based grant may include the following categories, subject to the Grant Agreement and the eligibility rules:

Personnel costs, including employees, persons under direct contract, seconded persons and eligible unit costs for SME owners or natural person beneficiaries.

Subcontracting costs, provided subcontracting is necessary, represents value for money and is appropriately justified. Subcontracting exceeding 30% of total eligible costs must be justified in the application.

Purchase costs, including eligible travel and subsistence, equipment and other goods, works and services.

Financial support to third parties where authorised and properly designed.

Indirect costs calculated as a 7% flat rate of eligible direct costs in the applicable categories, excluding costs that are specifically exempted under the Grant Agreement.

Non-deductible and non-refundable VAT may be eligible, except for VAT paid by public bodies acting as public authorities, which is not eligible under the stated rules.

Equipment costs are generally based on depreciation rather than the full purchase price, subject to the Grant Agreement.

Project duration and implementation

Projects should normally not exceed 24 months. Extensions may be possible through an amendment where duly justified, but applicants should design a realistic implementation period within the normal limit.

The project normally starts after grant signature. A retroactive starting date may exceptionally be approved for duly justified reasons, but not earlier than the proposal submission date.

The mandatory work structure includes a project management work package and at least one activity work package. Additional work packages may be added where needed. The work plan should connect activities, milestones, deliverables, resources, risks, outputs, adoption and impact.

Evaluation and award criteria

Proposals are evaluated through a single-stage submission and one-step evaluation process. Proposals are first checked for admissibility and eligibility, then assessed against operational capacity and the award criteria, ranked and considered for funding within the available budget.

The maximum score is 100 points and the overall threshold is 70 points. There are no individual minimum thresholds for the separate criteria, but the proposal must meet the overall threshold and remain within the available budget.

Evaluation criteria

A proposal should be developed around measurable outcomes such as tested tools, validated business models, cross-sector pilots, adoption commitments, audience growth, improved discoverability, reduced environmental impact, rights management improvements or investment leveraged.

Application requirements

Applications must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Paper applications are not accepted. All beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submission and obtain a Participant Identification Code.

The application consists of Part A, Part B, Part C and mandatory annexes. Part A contains administrative and budget information and is completed online. Part B contains the technical description and is downloaded from the submission system, completed, converted to PDF and uploaded. Part C contains additional project data and programme indicator information and is completed online.

The 2027 call document specifies a maximum of 50 pages for Part B. Evaluators will not consider pages beyond the limit. Applicants should use the template generated in the submission system because generic templates available elsewhere may not contain the call-specific fields.

The mandatory annex includes the declaration on independence and ownership. Applicants must also provide any other supporting documents required by the submission system and may be asked for additional documents during grant preparation, including legal entity, ownership, financial capacity and bank account documentation.

The proposal must be complete, readable, accessible and printable. All required documents must be uploaded in the correct portal categories. Proposals without full support or with missing mandatory information may be rejected as inadmissible.

Ownership, independence and ethical conditions

Participants must comply with EU values, applicable EU law and the relevant national and international legal framework. They must have appropriate ownership and independence arrangements and provide the required declarations.

Projects involving artificial intelligence, personal data, audience data, behavioural analysis, rights data or cross-border data flows should include a clear legal, ethical and governance framework. The application should address data protection, transparency, bias, explainability, intellectual property, creator remuneration, security and responsible use of artificial intelligence where relevant.

Applicants using generative artificial intelligence to prepare the proposal remain fully responsible for accuracy, originality, citations, intellectual property compliance and disclosure of how the tools were used. Generated material must be reviewed and validated by the applicants.

Financial and operational capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient financial resources to implement the action and contribute their share of co-financing. Financial capacity checks may involve profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, business plans, audit reports and other evidence requested during grant preparation.

Financial capacity checks normally apply to coordinators, with exceptions for public bodies, international organisations, certain cultural and creative entities receiving more than 50% of annual revenue from public sources over the previous two years, and projects requesting a grant of no more than €60,000.

Applicants must also demonstrate operational capacity through relevant experience, qualified personnel, technical resources and a credible management structure. The application should include staff profiles, responsibilities, previous comparable projects and the resources available to deliver the proposed innovation.

Entities subject to exclusion grounds, EU restrictive measures or applicable EU conditionality measures cannot participate in funded roles. Applicants must not be bankrupt, in serious breach of tax or social security obligations, guilty of serious professional misconduct, fraud, corruption, money laundering, terrorism-related offences or other exclusion situations under the EU Financial Regulation.

Payments and grant management

The grant is normally paid through prefinancing followed by payment of the balance after the project and financial reporting are assessed. Prefinancing is normally around 50% of the maximum grant amount, although it may be reduced or withheld depending on the circumstances and financial capacity assessment.

A prefinancing guarantee may be required, normally from the coordinator, particularly where financial capacity is not considered satisfactory. The final grant is based on eligible costs and compliance with the Grant Agreement. Excess payments may be recovered.

The coordinator receives payments and manages financial flows to consortium beneficiaries. Applicants should establish clear internal arrangements covering budget allocation, intellectual property, data access, liability, decision making, exploitation, reporting and recovery risks. A consortium agreement is recommended even where it is not mandatory.

Communication, dissemination and intellectual property obligations apply. Beneficiaries must acknowledge EU funding, use the required logos and carry out the communication and dissemination activities specified in the Grant Agreement. The European Commission may have rights to use project materials and information for policy, communication, dissemination and publicity purposes.

Practical applicant strategy

A competitive application should present a clearly defined cross-sector problem that cannot be solved effectively by a single cultural sector. It should show why audiovisual activity is essential and how the music, book or museum sector contributes to the solution.

The innovation should be more than a general technology concept. Applicants should define the users, current market failure or operational need, technology readiness, pilot environments, access to data and rights, implementation partners, adoption pathway and commercial or public value.

The business model should identify the paying or adopting customers, revenue or sustainability model, intellectual property ownership, licensing strategy, creator remuneration, private investment and the resources required after EU funding ends.

The proposal should quantify European added value through cross-border markets, multilingual content, European ownership, replication potential, international partnerships, audience reach, sector transferability or improved circulation of European content.

The work plan should include measurable milestones for design, testing, validation, pilot deployment, user feedback, market or sector adoption, dissemination and exploitation. Risks should cover technology, data access, intellectual property, regulation, user uptake, financing, partner dependency and timing.

The dissemination plan should explain how results, data, methods and lessons will be shared with the wider audiovisual and cultural sectors rather than remaining limited to the consortium. Where third-party grants are proposed, the application should include a complete and transparent cascade funding mechanism.

Main risks and points requiring attention

The call is forthcoming, so dates, budget and conditions should be checked again in the final published call documentation and on the official topic page before submission.

The deadline is 22 April 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time. The portal closes after the deadline and late applications cannot be submitted. Applicants should submit well in advance and retain the portal confirmation email.

The audiovisual sector is compulsory. A proposal focused only on music, books, museums, generic technology, tourism, education or events is unlikely to satisfy the scope.

Content production and development costs are excluded. Applicants should carefully separate eligible innovation, technology, testing, management, dissemination and exploitation costs from excluded production expenditure.

The 80% rate is a maximum reimbursement rate for eligible costs, not an automatic grant percentage of every proposed budget item. Costs must be necessary, reasonable, documented and compliant with the Grant Agreement.

The available call budget is limited and the number of grants is not specified. Passing the 70 point threshold does not guarantee funding if the available budget is exhausted.

The project should not be designed as a conventional commercial product development project without clear European cultural sector benefits, cross-sector cooperation and public value.

Support and submission

Non-technical questions may be sent to EACEA-CROSS-INNOVLAB@ec.europa.eu. Applicants should also consult their domestic Creative Europe Desk for eligibility and concept guidance.

Overall assessment

This opportunity is best suited to established or emerging partnerships that combine audiovisual capability with music, publishing or museum expertise and a credible technology or innovation proposition. The strongest concepts are likely to address AI-enabled discoverability, cross-sector rights and subscription models, audience development, virtual worlds, data-driven cultural distribution or measurable greening solutions.

Applicants should treat the call as an innovation and sector transformation opportunity rather than a conventional content production grant. A fundable proposal will need a clear European problem, a demonstrable cross-sector solution, credible users and pilots, a realistic 24-month work plan, a strong co-financing strategy, measurable outcomes and a pathway to adoption beyond the funded project.